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A prominent political critic in Kano, Abdulmajid Danbilki Commander, has accused President Bola Ahmed Tinubu of neglecting the North, claiming his policies have worsened economic hardship in the region.
In a viral TikTok video, Danbilki, who is a popular figure in the APC and staunch supporter of former president, Muhammadu Buhari, slammed Tinubu’s administration for its handling of the economy, particularly the soaring cost of living.
He pointed out that staple food prices have skyrocketed, noting that a bag of rice, which cost N26,000 under former President Muhammadu Buhari, now sells for N96,000.
Danbilki urged Tinubu to urgently tackle these economic challenges before the 2027 elections, warning that the worsening conditions could erode public trust.
He also criticized Northern politicians in Tinubu’s government, accusing them of prioritizing personal interests over regional development.
According to him, despite their significant presence in the administration, they have failed to advocate for policies that benefit the North.
Reminding them that power is temporary, he called on these officials to push for meaningful progress before their tenure ends.
Controversial singer Habeeb Okikiola, popularly known as Portable, has arrived at the Ogun State Police Command.
The spokesperson for the command, Omolola Odutola, confirmed this in a statement on Wednesday.
PUNCH Online earlier reported that the singer surrendered himself at the Lagos State Criminal Investigation Department, Yaba, on Wednesday.
The Lagos State Police Public Relations Officer, Benjamin Hundeyin, stated in a text message to our correspondent that the Ogun command had been contacted to take custody of the singer.
“Portable just turned himself in at the SCID, Yaba. We have contacted the Ogun State Police Command to come and pick him up,” Hundeyin stated.
Confirming his arrival, Odutola noted that the singer reached the command at 1:23 pm.
She said, “The Ogun State Police Command wishes to inform the public that Habeeb Okikiola, also known as Portable, arrived at the State Criminal Investigation Department, Eleweran, Abeokuta, at exactly 13:23 hours today, February 19, 2025.
“His presence at the SCID is connected to an ongoing investigation. The command assures the public that due process will be followed in handling this matter, and updates will be provided as necessary.”
She urged the public to remain calm and avoid spreading unverified information.
“We urge members of the public to remain calm and refrain from spreading unverified information. The Ogun State Police Command remains committed to upholding justice and maintaining public order,” Odutola stated.
Portable came under scrutiny after allegedly assaulting three officials from the Ogun State Ministry of Physical Planning and Urban Development, Ota Zonal Office: TPL Onabanjo Abidemi, TPL Raymond Lateef, and TPL Ridwan Oyero Akinlesi. The officials were conducting an enforcement exercise at Oke-Osa, Tigbo Ilu, Ota, Ogun State, when the alleged incident occurred.
Following the assault, nine of his accomplices were arrested and arraigned before a Magistrates’ Court in Isabo on five counts, including felony, assault, and conduct likely to cause a breach of peace. The suspects, accused of using cutlasses and guns, pleaded not guilty.
After Portable failed to honour police invitations, the Ogun State Police Command declared him wanted.
Speaking in multiple videos on Tuesday, Portable described himself as a
“madman undergoing treatment” at the Federal Neuropsychiatric Hospital, Aro, Abeokuta.
He also appealed to Nigerians and the Ogun State Government for leniency after being declared wanted by the state police command.
The ousted Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Mudashiru Obasa, has denied reports linking him to some firearms allegedly uncovered at his office.
Online reports on Tuesday alleged that 47 pump-action guns were discovered by officials of the Department of State Services during a visit to the assembly on Monday.
Some versions of the reports claimed the weapons were found in Obasa’s office, while others suggested they were in the former Chief Security Officer’s office.
In a statement released by his aide and signed by Obasa on Wednesday, the former Speaker described the report as a “concoction.”
The statement was titled Re: “DSS Uncovers Arms Cache In Obasa’s Office Day After Lagos Assembly Drama.”
He said, “The ill-conceived story, apart from being a complete concoction, clearly exposes its author and paymasters as maliciously of low intelligent quotient, only out to malign my hard-earned reputation spanning decades of political leadership and legislative hard work.
“The discovery, according to the story’s specious account, led to immediate notification of ‘the State Security Service, who in turn sent in their men to take inventory of the arms and also take them into custody while an investigation is scheduled on the development.
“From the foregoing, it is obviously discerning that my traducers are furtively attempting to call a dog a bad name just to hang it.”
He said it was of public knowledge that he travelled abroad around the end month of December and returned in January, by which time he had been removed, “a matter that is currently before the court of law for adjudication.”
“Immediately their sinister act was carried out while the House was on recess, my office (the Speaker’s Office), and the Assembly Chamber were forcefully broken into, and thoroughly ransacked by their assigned officers.
“I consider their purported sudden discovery of ‘cache of arms ammunition in the Speaker’s Office as nothing but an afterthought, having sensed the futility of their illegal actions,” Obasa added.
A source in the DSS had on Tuesday told PUNCH Online that the report that the agency uncovered weapons at the assembly was false.
The Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Mojisola Meranda, has denied rumours suggesting that she has resigned.
Meranda’s Chief Press Secretary, Segun Ajiboye, debunked the rumour on Wednesday.
“I’m in the office. The speaker is in the office. I don’t know where that is coming from.
“This is the handiwork of mischief makers working for the impeached Speaker Mudashiru Obasa, who have been commissioned to spread fake news on social media to mislead the public and maintain pressure on the current leadership of the House. We are aware of this, and it will not succeed,” the aide stated.
The aide further explained that the latest resignation rumour stems from a “fake resignation letter” originally circulated on Monday by “paid bloggers.”
“I urge members of the public to ignore such reports, as they are fake, unfounded, and without any iota of truth,” Ajiboye said in a chat with PUNCH Online.
The clarification is coming on the heels of viral reports alleging that the newly appointed speaker had resigned.
A circular dated February 17, 2025, allegedly released by Meranda had also been trending for two days, with the content claiming she had resigned.
However, checks on the letter circulating on social media showed it wasn’t signed by anyone.
Recall that the Lagos State Assembly had been rocked with a leadership crisis since the former Speaker, Obasa, was removed by the majority of the lawmakers at the House.
Reacting to the removal, Obasa dared his colleagues, insisting that he remains the speaker of the state assembly.
Addressing a crowd of his supporters at his official residence at the GRA, Ikeja, Obasa, who represents Agege, insisted that his impeachment did not follow due process.
According to him, Meranda’s election as the new Speaker did not follow the law, declaring his removal null and void.
The embattled lawmaker alleged that a fake mace was used to install Meranda as Speaker, adding that hundreds of policemen invaded the assembly on the day of his removal to intimidate his loyalists.
Obasa also alleged that some policemen invaded his official residence on the same day and prevented members of his family in the house from coming out.
While vowing to resume as Speaker, Obasa also said he would challenge his removal in court.
But the state lawmakers asked the residents of the state to ignore the rantings of the former speaker, warning him not to heat up the polity.
There are so many AI chatbot extensions for Google Chrome that finding a good one in the stack of poorly designed tools is an overwhelming task. So, I've tested four of the most popular AI chatbot extensions to find the best one.
The Google Chrome AI Chatbot Extensions I Tested
I tested the Monica, Merlin, and ChatGPT Sidebar extensions for Chrome. These AI chatbot extensions have millions of users with ratings of 4.8 and 4.9 stars out of 5. I also added Perplexity AI into the mix as I liked using its AI chatbot and am curious whether its extension is as good. I also checked the safety and legitimacy of these Chrome extensions before installing them, and all of them should be safe to install. So, all in all, we have four extensions to try and compare.
AI Chatbot Extensions Head-to-Head Comparison
I compared features, ease of use, and performance to determine the best AI chatbot extension. Note that these tools each have a full-featured web app separate from the extensions. I only compared them based on the extensions' features. So, features that require you to visit the AI chatbot website are not included.
Also, output quality and speed performance depend heavily on the specific AI model. This does not directly reflect the extension itself. So, we will base performance on factors such as the models they support and the number of queries you can do for both basic and advanced models.
|
Extension |
Features |
Ease of Use |
Performance |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Perplexity AI |
Quick and lightweight. Instant page summaries, real-time Q&A. |
User-friendly interface with straightforward toolbar integration. |
Unlimited queries. It uses real-time web search and Claude 3 Haiku to provide quick and accurate information. Best used for queries requiring short answers. |
|
Monica |
All-in-one extension. The comprehensive suite of features includes chat, search, writing assistance, file uploads, translation, and creative capabilities like image and video generation. |
Cluttered. UI can be overwhelming for new users but can be easier to use with proper setup and keyboard shortcuts. |
Unlimited queries on lots of popular basic models like DeepSeek R1(small), GPT-4o mini, and Gemini 2.0 Flash. Does not provide free credits for premium models. |
|
Merlin |
Well-curated set of features. Focuses on productivity enhancement with quick answers and content summarization. |
Simple interface focusing on quick access to AI assistance. UI is good but can feel outdated. |
Provides a substantial amount of queries (free 100 credits per day). Lacks the latest models like DeepSeek and GPT-o1 but provides free credits to other advanced models like GPT-4o, Claude 3 Sonnet, and Mixtral. Good for research and coding assistance. |
|
ChatGPT Sidebar |
All-in-one extension. It features a comprehensive suite of AI features and utilities like AI web search, chat, translation, file converters, file uploads, and image and video generation. |
Clean layout. Core features are easy to navigate, while more advanced features can be accessed in the sidebar. |
Limited (30 credits per day). No free credit for popular advanced models. |
Perplexity AI Extension
Perplexity was the simplest and easiest to use out of the four. You can only do two things—ask a question and ask for a summary. I like its focus feature, which allows you to choose where Perplexity sources its answers, whether it be the web page you're currently on, the entire website, or the internet.
Monica
Taking an entirely opposite approach, Monica feels more like a full-featured app rather than a Chrome extension. It stands out as the most versatile extension, offering a wide range of AI capabilities, including writing, search, translations, and even image/video generation. These AI features are further improved with context memory, file uploads, live voice, real-time search, and the ability to choose between popular AI models. My favorite feature is the free and unlimited use of basic models like GPT-4o mini, Claude Haiku, and DeepSeek R1 (small).
Due to its massive amount of features, Monica does feel very cluttered and can be confusing for new users. However, I do like that it provides options for keyboard shortcuts and toolbar preferences, which makes it much easier to use in the long run.
Merlin
Merlin provides a good middle ground between Perplexity's simplicity and Monica's assortment of features. I enjoyed using it as its UI feels simple and intuitive while still packing enough features for me to do a good deal of productivity with just my browser. What I find limiting with Merlin is that it only gives you 102 credits to use per day. Although quite substantial when using small models like GPT-4o, which uses one credit per query, the daily free credit does feel very limiting when you start using advanced models like GPT-4o, which uses 15 credits per query.
ChatGPT Sidebar
ChatGPT Sidebar provides roughly the same features as Monica while being much less cluttered. However, my biggest problem with ChatGPT Sidebar is that it only offers 30 credits per day, even with smaller AI models like GPT-4o mini, DeepSeek R1 70B (small), and Claude 3.5 Haiku, taking one credit per query. It doesn't offer any free credits for advanced models like GPT-4o and Claude 3.5 Sonnet like Merlin does. However, it does allow you to try "super advanced" models like GPT-o1 at 15 credits, GPT-o3 at three credits, and DeepSeek R1 (big) at two credits per query.
This Is the Best Chrome AI Chatbot Extension
There are many AI-powered Chrome extensions for productivity, but after testing some of the most popular AI ones, Monica stands out as the best Chrome AI chatbot extension.
Monica provides the most features and best performance without paying for any subscription or worrying about credits. Although I dislike its cluttered UI, I find that its sheer amount of features and the versatility of its free AI models allows me to do a lot more than any of the AI extensions I've tried. With real-time web research available in Monica, having access to small AI models like GPT-4o mini is enough to provide accurate answers, making it a great free AI tool that saves me money on premium AI subscriptions.
ChatGPT Sidebar seems to provide the best set of features with a very clean and intuitive UI, but its low daily credit makes it very limited. I recommend Merlin over ChatGPT if you're a free user. At least Merlin provides a good amount of credit for using basic AI models while still having all the useful features you'd want in an AI extension.
If you're willing to pay a premium for a monthly subscription, the ChatGPT Sidebar extension is the best-paid option out of the four. Remember that these extensions do not allow you to use your existing premium subscriptions to any AI chatbot you may have. This means that your already existing subscription to premium AI services like ChatGPT Plus cannot be used within these extensions.
So, if you're already subscribed to any premium AI chatbot service like ChatGPT, it might just be better for you to directly visit the web app and supplement it with the Perplexity AI extension for quick Q&A and summaries.
As for me, I'll continue to use Monica as my all-in-one AI extension for Chrome.
[makeuseof]
Apple (AAPL.O), opens new tab is set to launch its latest budget iPhone model on Wednesday as it looks to grab a bigger share of the mid-range smartphone market and fend off competition from rivals such Samsung (005930.KS), opens new tab and China's Huawei.
The fourth generation of the lower-cost model, so far known as iPhone SE, will take on popular Android smartphones at a time when consumer electronics makers are looking to add artificial intelligence tools into their devices.
The current-generation of iPhone SE, released in 2022, is available at $429 and the latest version is likely to be priced at a premium to the outgoing model. The iPhone 16, launched in September, starts at $799 for the base variant.
"If the SE 4 offers meaningful upgrades in design, performance, and AI features, it could reinvigorate its market appeal and strengthen Apple's position across different price segments," Counterpoint Research senior analyst Varun Mishra said.
Apple late last month forecast strong sales growth signaling that the company will recover from a dip in iPhone sales as it rolls out artificial intelligence features in the coming months to more regions and languages.
However, analysts have been cautious about the sales boost such tools could provide, as Apple's AI features are set to be rolled out in phases in some regions on its latest iPhone 16 line-up and the iPhone 15 Pro model.
The SE model's sales as part of total revenue for iPhones has dropped from 10% from its introduction in 2016 to about 1% last year, according to Counterpoint Research.
This year's update is expected to revamp its slab-design, ditch the physical home button and introduce its FaceID feature, apart from camera and processor updates to support AI features, according to analysts and media reports.
The SE model would be the last among iPhones to adopt the USB Type-C port for charging, a departure from its proprietary Lightning connector.
Apple has already discontinued the current SE and iPhone 14 in the European Union as the products do not conform with local laws requiring USB Type-C charging standard. The latest SE model would let it return to the EU.
[Reuters]
KEY POINTS
- DeepSeek’s founder, Liang Wenfeng, has been dubbed by some in Western media as the “Sam Altman of China.” But unlike his Silicon Valley counterpart, he has maintained a low public profile.
- Last month, Liang received a hero’s welcome in his hometown of China and was spotted at a roundtable hosted by Chinese Premier Li Qiang, and most recently at a closed-door symposium chaired by President Xi Jinping earlier this week.
- Outside of its core technology developers, DeepSeek has mostly shared the senior management team, operation staff, human resource department and financial accountants of its mothership High-Flyer, according to people familiar with the company.
Artificial intelligence startup DeepSeek has rocketed into global prominence, shaking up the AI world, but the team behind it is relatively unknown outside China.
DeepSeek’s founder, Liang Wenfeng, has been dubbed by some in Western media as China’s Sam Altman. But unlike his Silicon Valley counterpart, Liang has maintained a low public profile.
Liang’s team, comprising young graduates from some of the country’s leading universities, is also little known. The team consists of fewer than 140 people, according to Chinese state media, though a research paper on its latest R1 reasoning model lists about 200 contributors. CNBC has been unable to confirm the official size of the team.
Outside of its core technology developers, DeepSeek has mostly shared the senior management team, operation staff, human resource department and financial accountants of its mothership High-Flyer, according to sources familiar with the company.
Here’s an overview of the people behind the AI sensation and how the startup came into being.
Liang Wenfeng
Liang has received the lion’s share of media attention in recent weeks as DeepSeek’s chatbot ascended to the top of global app charts.
Last month, he reportedly received a hero’s welcome in his hometown of China and was spotted at a roundtable hosted by Chinese Premier Li Qiang, and most recently at a closed-door symposium chaired by President Xi Jinping earlier this week.
The 40-year-old founder of DeepSeek has been quite media-shy, apart from two rare interviews with Chinese media outlet 36Kr in July last year and in 2023.
The interviews paint a picture of an idealistic leader set on achieving artificial general intelligence (AGI) — a type of AI that mimics human capabilities — and transforming China into a technology innovator.
Born in 1985, Liang grew up in Zhanjiang, a port city and trade center in southern China. He was a straight-A student who was particularly gifted in mathematics, according to local media reports.
Liang Wenfeng, founder of startup DeepSeek, delivers the keynote speech during the 10th China Private Equity Golden Bull Awards on Aug. 30, 2019, in Shanghai.
Vcg | Visual China Group | Getty Images
After teaching himself calculus in junior high school, he was admitted to Zhejiang University in 2002 and later received a bachelor’s and master’s degree in information and communication engineering in 2010.
With a specialization in machine vision research, in 2008 Liang started writing machine-learning algorithms to analyze market trends and macro data to make investment decisions, according to Chinese technology-focused media outlet 36Kr, which had interviewed Liang.
AI was not a typical quant strategy at the time, but Liang drew inspiration from Jim Simons, a pioneer of quantitative investing who founded Renaissance Technologies, one of the world’s most successful funds, Liang said in the introduction to the Chinese version of Simons’ biography.
High-Flyer fund manager
In 2015, Liang and college friend Jin Xu founded High-Flyer Asset Management, a quantitative hedge fund that uses complex mathematical algorithms to predict market trends and make investment decisions.
Xu was a graduate from Zhejiang University’s Chu Kochen Honors College, which selects top students at the elite university.
There, Xu focused his PhD studies on robot autonomous navigation and machine learning — similar to Liang’s focus of postdoctoral research — and was a key member of the visual navigation research project for China’s lunar exploration program.
Xu, who once worked at Huawei Technologies’ software development in the early 2010s, now leads High-Flyer’s technology development and crafts trading strategies, his profile page on private equity database PaiPaiWang showed.
Zhengzhe Lu, the chief executive officer of High-Flyer, graduated from the same university as Liang and Xu, before earning a master’s degree from the London School of Economics and Politics.
Prior to High-Flyer, Lu worked at the state-backed China Merchants Bank, where he was engaged with macro research and overseas derivative investment.
In an interview with Chinese state media in 2023, Lu said: “We have set up a new team independent of investment, what is equivalent to a second start-up” — which later grew to become DeepSeek. “We want to do things with greater value and things that go beyond investment industry.”
The pair manage some of the best performing funds under the company’s portfolios, with averaged returns over 20% in 2024, according to PaiPaiWang. That was above gains of about 15% in the CSI 300 index last year, a 5% rise in the small-cap CSI 500.
The quant fund’s profits were partially channeled to fund the rise of DeepSeek, Liang told 36 Kr in 2023.
Brains behind DeepSeek
In 2023, High-Flyer spun off DeepSeek as an independent enterprise, expanding its remit beyond investment and focusing on pursuing AGI.
The team consists mostly of local engineering, computer science and AI graduates from top universities in China — such as Tsinghua University and Peking University — many of whom have published recent papers on subjects such as language models and machine learning.
A number of team members are also graduates from top American universities with experience at Nvidia and Microsoft who decided to return to China’s growing AI industry, according to their LinkedIn profiles.
A key attribute that sets the team apart is age, as DeepSeek favors graduates with less work experience.
Instead, “they emphasize academic degrees, awards at international programming competitions, research papers published at top industry journals,” a headhunter for DeepSeek told CNBC.
In the interview in 2023, Liang said experience is less important in the long run and “foundational abilities, creativity, and passion are more crucial.”
In 2024, he said that while the top 50 talent in AI may not have been in China, DeepSeek was aiming to cultivate its own.
Top graduates also appear to be attracted to the firm because of its reportedly higher salaries and greater degree of bottom-up management than what might be found at a larger tech firm.
[CNBC]
Bitcoin Price Faces Volatility as Market Braces for Potential $85K Breakdown Following August 2023 Pattern
Admin
Bitcoin's price is showing signs of volatility, with recent fluctuations sparking comparisons to its movements in August 2023. On Feb. 17, research from on-chain analytics platform CryptoQuant pointed out that Bitcoin's price action has become increasingly rangebound, signaling a potential shift in market behavior. The Choppiness Index, a measure of market volatility, has reached high levels, indicating that a significant price movement could be imminent.
The current range for Bitcoin has been hovering around 16% over the last 90 days, with a noticeable lack of trend in its price action. The Choppiness Index, which stands at 62 on the daily chart and 72 on the weekly chart, shows instability and an urgent need for Bitcoin to break out of its stagnant price range. According to CryptoQuant contributor Percival, such conditions often precede a larger market move. He notes that similar behavior was observed in August 2023 when Bitcoin experienced a sharp drop before beginning a sustained uptrend.
In 2023, before Bitcoin's price surged, the market had seen relatively low volatility, which caused many traders to abandon their positions. Percival suggests that the current situation could lead to a liquidity grab, where market participants holding positions on the wrong side of the trade are cleared out before a potential price rise. His analysis highlights that Bitcoin's price movements are currently erratic, with alternating periods of rapid gains and consolidations.
While Bitcoin is facing short-term uncertainty, long-term prospects remain positive. The increasing adoption of cryptocurrencies and institutional interest in digital assets like Bitcoin has led to an overall bullish sentiment. However, Bitcoin's price action is still subject to significant volatility, and investors are advised to remain cautious and well-informed about market developments.
Regarding potential price levels, the short-term holder (STH) cost basis of $92,000 is being closely monitored as a key level of support. If Bitcoin fails to hold this level, attention will shift to the 200-day exponential moving average (EMA), which is currently at $85,000. This could serve as a critical support zone if the market continues to experience downward pressure.
Bitcoin’s price action is in a highly volatile phase, with significant potential for movement in either direction. While market sentiment is mixed, some analysts believe a major price move is on the horizon. Investors are advised to watch key levels like the $92,000 cost basis and the $85,000 EMA as critical indicators of Bitcoin’s next move. As the situation develops, staying updated on market trends and adjusting strategies accordingly will be essential for navigating the unpredictable nature of Bitcoin's price.
[Yahoo finance]
If you hold cryptocurrencies like XRP (CRYPTO: XRP) or Bitcoin, (CRYPTO: BTC) you're probably not sure how they'd hold up in the event of an economic recession. Whether it would make sense to buy more of either asset in such a scenario is an even bigger question, as a timely purchase during hard times might pay off significantly when conditions improve down the line.
Are either of these assets worth buying if the economy starts to recede? Or would it make more sense to dump both? Let's unpack this issue and make a game plan so that you'll be prepared if something happens in the coming years.
Here's how a tough economy could impact these coins
In the U.S., an economic recession is generally defined as a period of at least two consecutive quarters in which the gross domestic product (GDP) decreases rather than increases as normal. Usually recessions are accompanied by higher unemployment, reduced consumption of goods and services, reduced international trade volume, and falling asset prices, particularly in more liquid assets like stocks and cryptocurrencies, but often in harder assets like real estate as well.
It's unpleasant to think about but consider the mechanism for why asset prices decline when the economy is having trouble. People believe that they'll be better off having cash in hand than seeing their capital eroded as assets become harder to offload and priced lower than before. In many cases, people need to liquidate their investments to pay their bills, as their sources of income dry up while the economic tide withdraws.
In such a scenario, the easiest assets to liquidate are the most likely to get sold first. That means stocks and cryptocurrencies would be on the chopping block before safer and harder-to-transfer assets like real estate. And typically, it's the riskiest assets that start taking the deepest hits the soonest in a recession, as risky plays tend to assume that the economy will continue expanding, as it's an expansionary phase that supports the drive to explore new horizons of business and industry in the first place.
So what does that mean for holders of less-risky cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and XRP?
While it depends on the length and depth of the recession, they're very likely to get hosed. Declines of 80% or more wouldn't be surprising during a longer recession. But for those who could retain some capital and load up on one of these two coins, there could be a big opportunity in store.
There's a correct choice here if you can make it when it counts
XRP is not the coin to buy if there's a recession. Here's why.
XRP gains value by capturing fees when the users of its network perform international money transfers. They do those transfers because the alternative approach is to use legacy technology that's far pricier and slower. Its investment thesis is that over the long term, more and more of those users, which are typically financial institutions like banks and currency exchange houses, will be drawn to its more efficient new technology, enabling it to draw larger and larger transfer volumes, and more fees as a result.
Recessions tend to cause volumes of international trade to decline, as buyers have less money. Sellers may struggle to sell their products at high price points if supply and demand become mismatched. Both of those factors reduce the volume of transactions for XRP and its fee revenue. There's also the possibility that investors will need to sell their XRP to pay for their expenses, driving the coin's price down further.
Therefore, economic recessions are a fierce threat to XRP's value across multiple vectors, at least in the short term. Note that if the coin's value falls during a recession as a result of these factors, it doesn't actually detract from its core investment thesis for it to accrue value over the long term, it just means investors would likely need to wait a lot longer before seeing the price of their coins appreciate in value. And if fundamental economic, financial, or trade relationships are permanently reordered as a result of the disruption, which is often the case, the coin might struggle to regain its prior heights.
On the other hand, Bitcoin only faces one major pressure during a recession: People selling their coins to pay for their spending needs.
Even during hard times, it'll still retain its capabilities as an effective hedge against inflation, and as a store of value. The mechanism by which it gains in value over time -- its scarcity due to regular halvings of its mining reward -- will continue to grind forward regardless of whatever economic phenomena are happening. Similarly, a deep recession could make a company like Ripple, the issuer of XRP, become insolvent, and the chain could therefore collapse.
But Bitcoin isn't run by a company, it's an independent blockchain that exists as a network of many different actors working in their self-interest. That makes it more durable in the face of deeper shocks to the global economy. And that's why, assuming you can keep some capital on hand for when the economy is struggling, it makes more sense to buy Bitcoin than XRP, provided that you're willing to hold it for at least a few years or longer.
Should you invest $1,000 in XRP right now?
Before you buy stock in XRP, consider this:
The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and XRP wasn’t one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years.
Consider when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $850,946!*
Now, it’s worth noting Stock Advisor’s total average return is 959% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 178% for the S&P 500. Don’t miss out on the latest top 10 list.
Investors had pretty much written off Jonathan Ferrari’s fledging meal-delivery company.
His startup, Goodfood Market Corp., had lost 98% of of its value from a Covid-era high, and was a mere penny stock in the cut-throat business of food delivery.
So this year, Ferrari hatched a new plan that he is convinced will turn Goodfood’s stock around: Buy Bitcoin.
“We have a nice core business but it’s too small to be relevant to the capital markets,” Ferrari, 36, said. “I think as we start investing more into our Bitcoin treasury strategy we’ll be able to create more liquidity in our stock and attract investors.”
Goodfood is one of the dozens of public companies — including a social-media company, a video game developer and a coal mining firm — that have been following in the footsteps of Michael Saylor’s Strategy by using corporate cash, and in some cases borrowed money, to buy Bitcoin. Even the board of Trump Media & Technology Group Corp. decided last month to allocate some of its cash to cryptocurrency investments.
While there’s nothing illegal about the practice, the purchases do raise questions about whether public companies should be in the business of speculative investing, given that the tokens generally become a part of their treasury holdings, which are usually reserved for cash and ultra-safe equivalents. There is also the matter of what happens to the underlying businesses, which often have nothing to do with Bitcoin, if the value of the token crashes yet again.
“If you buy things with debt and the price of those things go down and your debt comes due, you have a problem,” said Austin Campbell, a cryptocurrency consultant and former Wall Street trader who is an adjunct professor at NYU Stern School of Business.
Yet those sorts of concerns get pushed aside in the fads that periodically sweep the corporate world during moments of tech euphoria. There were the companies that added dot.com to their name in the late 90s, and the more recent trend of executives rushing to talk about artificial intelligence during earnings calls. In this case, though, the Bitcoin buyers are putting corporate funds on the line.
Ferrari started with $1 million of Bitcoin last month and he is planning to spend a “significant” amount of Goodfood’s remaining cash — and any future cash flows — on additional purchases.
The Bitcoin-buying tactic has caught fire as the price of the original cryptocurrency has taken off over the past year, leading Donald Trump to talk about even the US government creating its own strategic Bitcoin reserve.
The new additions to the crypto landscape are generally taking inspiration from Saylor, the chairman of Strategy — or MicroStrategy Inc. as it used to be known.
While the company’s old software business has been limping along, the stock has become a darling of retail and institutional investors due to Saylor’s decision to plow the company’s cash — and more recently the proceeds from stock and bond sales — into Bitcoin. Strategy said on Tuesday it plans to offer another $2 billion of convertible debt in a private offering, extending the self-styled Bitcoin treasury company’s unconventional fundraising strategy.
Strategy’s stock has gone up even faster than the price of Bitcoin over the past year and the company is now worth almost twice as much as its roughly $45 billion in cryptocurrency holdings.
Some of Saylor’s proteges have done even better. Metaplanet, which has styled itself as a Japanese version of Strategy, has been one of the best performing stocks in the world since it sold most of its hotel holdings and plunged all the money into Bitcoin last year, and then borrowed money to buy more. (Its lone hotel in Tokyo is being rebranded as “The Bitcoin Hotel.”)
The most recent sign of Saylor’s success came when the CEO of GameStop Corp, Ryan Cohen, posted a picture of himself with Saylor on social media. The post led GameStop’s stock to shoot up as Cohen’s followers speculated that the retailer would become the latest public company to buy Bitcoin.
Some of the current Strategy imitators have followed Saylor’s risky tactic of borrowing money to buy Bitcoin. Semler Scientific, Inc., a medical testing company, borrowed $85 million last month to fund its own purchases and add to the tens of millions of dollars it bought with cash last year.
The move has worked for Semler so far, as its stock has more than doubled since it began buying.
Yet some analysts worry about how sustainable the strategy will prove to be. First, there are questions about what happens to a company’s ability to pay back the money it borrowed if the price of Bitcoin goes down. And even for smaller companies that aren’t taking on debt, there is the worry that the attention boost from buying Bitcoin will diminish as more companies do the same. For Goodfood, the company’s stock initially rose slightly before slumping after it made its first purchases.
“With the Bitcoin ETF and MicroStrategy already existing, the actual long-term utility of other people doing this is very low,” said Campbell, the adjunct NYU Stern professor.
For now, with the original digital token holding near its all-time high, the tactic that Saylor initiated in 2020 has continued to remain attractive.
While there is no official way of tracking the practice, one public list counts 66 publicly-listed companies — and another 12 private ones — around the world that have bought Bitcoin, many of which had nothing to do with Bitcoin, or investing of any sort, previously.
The manager of a $25 million hedge fund, TMR Capital, is about to embark on a letter-writing campaign to encourage dozens of micro-cap companies to follow the MicroStrategy playbook. Ted Rosenthal, the founder of TMR, said he thinks the tactic can give small stocks a huge boost of attention, and he is offering to pool capital to inject more money into the shares of companies that give it a try.
“Bitcoin is a way to get attention very quickly,” Rosenthal said. “There’s probably no other way to get your stock up 20-times in a year.”
This is not the conventional corporate strategy of yore that focused on building sustainable long-term businesses.
To Eric Semler, the CEO of Semler Scientific, the risks are worth it because the new holdings give the company access to a wider pool of potential investors.
The convertible bonds issued by Semler and Strategy — along with a handful of Bitcoin mining companies — have made them attractive to hedge funds looking to employ a form of arbitrage that allows them to capitalize on the volatility of Bitcoin.
Other large investors that are restricted from purchasing Bitcoin directly — even through ETFs — are using stocks like Semler and Goodfood as an indirect way to get exposure to the asset class. Meanwhile, message boards are filled with day-trading crypto aficionados advertising their desire to invest in and support companies with Bitcoin holdings.
Then there is the sheer persuasive power — and attractive returns — of Strategy’s Saylor, who has become a promoter of the practice, and a mentor to many of the executives jumping on board.
“Our board didn’t have a lot of experience of or understanding of Bitcoin,” said Eric Semler. Saylor, who got on the phone with Semler, won him and the board over.
“He is such a strong believer in the merit of what he is doing,” he said. “And he wanted others to follow him and help Bitcoin.”
[Bloomberg]
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Mike Ozekhome Writes IGP As Enugu Police Command Faces Extortion Allegations in N62 Million Scandal, Makes Demands, Probe
Admin
The Enugu State Police Command is under increasing scrutiny following allegations of extorting N62 million from businessman Mr Olu Agwu by the state’s anti-kidnapping unit. The situation has escalated with the involvement of Police Commissioner Mr. Kanayo Uzuegbu now being closely examined.
Recent reports indicate that Agwu was pressured into transferring the substantial amount to various accounts allegedly controlled by police officers. This incident is part of a troubling trend where high-profile individuals are falsely accused of being affiliated with the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) to facilitate extortion.
In a detailed petition to the Inspector General of Police at the Nigeria Police Force Headquarters in Abuja, constitutional lawyer and Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) Prof. Mike Ozekhome outlined Agwu’s distressing experience. The petition describes unlawful arrest, detention, and extortion carried out under the pretense of combating terrorism and IPOB activities.
Mr Agwu, a law-abiding citizen residing in Lagos, reportedly became a target due to a fabricated scheme orchestrated by his business associate, Michael Umeh, who, with alleged support from the Enugu Police Command, accused Agwu of IPOB and Eastern Security Network (ESN) affiliations following a business dispute.
Mr Agwu was arrested on December 26, 2024, and has since suffered severe mistreatment, intimidation, and financial coercion.
The extortion operation, which reportedly involved notable figures such as one Hon Ochi Nonso and an individual known as ‘Daddy White,’ resulted in Mr Agwu relinquishing N62 million to evade further torture and false charges. Nonso, allegedly introduced by the Police Commissioner, collected N20 million purportedly on the commissioner’s behalf. Additionally, the investigating officer demanded N2 million to modify Mr Agwu’s coerced statement, with new threats for an extra N100 million jeopardizing Agwu’s safety and financial stability.
Prof. Ozekhome’s petition calls for an immediate and comprehensive investigation into the unfounded allegations against Mr Agwu, the cessation of ongoing threats, and the return of the extorted N62 million.
The actions of the Enugu State Police Command, as detailed in the petition, represent a significant violation of legal and ethical standards, raising serious concerns about the integrity of the police force.
As the scandal develops, public attention intensifies, with calls for accountability and justice for Olu Agwu and other potential victims of police misconduct. The request for intervention by the Inspector General of Police signifies a pivotal moment in addressing corruption and abuse of power within the Nigerian Police Force.
[Opinion Nigeria]
The Statistician-General of the Federation, Adeyemi Adeniran, has advised Nigerians to disregard reports that inflation has come down.
Naija News reports that Adeniran explained that the report the Nigeria Bureau of Statistics (NBS) released was not the current inflation rate in the country.
In an interview with Arise News, on Tuesday night, he stated that NBS did not say prices of goods have come down in markets. He said what the report measured was how fast the price of goods is increasing in the country using the 2024 base.
He further explained that NBS decided to dump the 2009 base for the 2024 base to provide accurate data measuring the current inflationary pressures within the economy.
“The present government has been coming out with policies just to make things work better for the country. And there’s nothing wrong in that projection that government made. What we are doing as a responsible statistics office is to provide data, accurate data, that reflect present inflationary pressure within the economy. The government can now use to drive the objective of achieving that goal,” he said.
The Statistician-General of the Federation explained that in the 2024 base 960 items were collected into a basket of measurement and assigned weights.
He stressed that the new inflation report said that inflation remained high but prices are moving up slowly.
“When we talk about rebasing, as I said, we are moving from 2009, that was the old basing, to 2024. In the 2009 goods and services, the basket that we have, we have 740 items in that basket. In this newly rebased period, 2024, we have 960 items in the basket. And the weight assigned to each of these products in the basket is not the same. So to that extent, we cannot be comparing the 2009 base year result, which gave us 34.8% in December with this current January 2025 inflation rates. So they are not comparable. So saying that inflation moved from 34.8% to 24.48% is not the interpretation.
“We are coming with a new inflation rate for the country that showed the present inflationary pressure in the economy. So that government knows what actually is the correct situation.
“So the new inflation rate is saying that prices are moving up, but in a slower rate. That’s what inflation measures. Inflation is measuring when prices are going up. At what rate are those prices moving up? You may have in a particular month, depending on the situation, the price will be moving rapidly, changing rapidly. And in another month or period of the year, you will see inflation not moving. The prices can still be going up, but not as much as it used to be. That’s what inflation is measuring. The rate at which prices are moving,” he stated.
He dismissed the misinterpretation of the report that food prices have come down.
He continued, “It’s different from the actual prices that people are paying for goods and services. So as we said, inflation is 24.48%. It doesn’t mean the prices of goods and services in the market have changed. But the rate by which some of the items are changing prices is what inflation is measuring. So we are not saying prices have come down generally in the market.”
[NaijaNews]
On Monday, the crisis rocking the Lagos State House of Assembly came to a head when security operatives disrupted plenary.
There was commotion at the Assembly as the security operatives sealed off offices of Speaker Mojisola Meranda, her deputy, and clerk of the House.
Lagos Assembly scenario reactivates memories of similar incidents that occurred in others states across the country.
In this report, Daily Trust highlights some state houses of assemblies that have had leadership crises.
LAGOS
There was chaos at the Lagos State House of Assembly on Monday, as the Department of State Service (DSS) invaded the assembly, allegedly on the orders of the clerk.
In the ensuing melee, the lawmakers forcefully gained entry into the hallowed chamber and declared their support for the Speaker, Mojisola Meranda.
The Governance Advisory Council, the highest decision-making body of the All Progressives Congress in Lagos State, has, however, reaffirmed its plans to meet with President Bola Tinubu over the ongoing crisis in the state House of Assembly.
The fresh rift followed the militarisation of the Assembly complex by officials of the DSS on Monday.
The crisis deepened following moves by ousted Speaker Mudashiru Obasa to return to the House.
Obasa, who was removed by the majority of the lawmakers on January 13, 2025, approached the court last week to seek redress.
The lawmaker dragged the Assembly and the new Speaker before a Lagos State high court in Ikeja, claiming that the lawmakers were wrong to have removed him when the Assembly was in recess.
RIVERS
Twenty-seven members of the Rivers State House of Assembly had in December 2023, “dumped” the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for the All Progressives Congress (APC) at the heat of political crisis in the state.
The lawmakers led by Speaker Martins Amaewhule, are loyal to a former governor of the state, Nyesom Wike, who is currently the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
Their “defection” followed the feud between Wike and his successor, Governor Siminalayi Fubara, over political control in the state. It also led to multiple litigations.
Meanwhile, a five-member House led by Speaker Victor Oko Jumbo is loyal to Governor Fubara.
OGUN
In January 2024, Olakunle Oluomo was impeached as Speaker of the Ogun State Assembly Speaker by 18 members of the House.
He was immediately replaced by another ranking lawmaker, Oludaisi Elemide, representing the Odeda state constituency.
Oluomo was reportedly at the June 12 Cultural Centre, Kuto, Abeokuta—a few metres away from the Assembly complex— attending the swearing-in of customary court judges by the governor when his colleagues moved against him.
Governor Dapo Abbiodun, in a statement by his Special Adviser on Media, Kayode Akinmade, linked Oluomo’s impeachment to long-standing “internal wrangling in the Assembly that had persisted and degenerated despite several interventions.”
ONDO
On June 2, 2023, armed security men sealed off the Ondo State House of Assembly following an alleged plot to impeach the Speaker, Bamidele Oloyelogun.
This came a few hours after a letter purportedly written by the embattled Speaker announced his resignation.
The letter, according to reports, was hurriedly written by the Speaker to escape being impeached a few days to the expiration of the 9th Assembly which he led.
The two gates leading to the complex were blocked by the security operatives.
Olamide Oladiji was elected Speaker of the House on 4 June 2023.
NASARAWA
In 2023, the intrigues, twists and turns in the leadership crisis that engulfed the Nasarawa State House of Assembly tore the Assembly into two factions, with each claiming legitimacy to its leadership.
Daniel Ogazi and Ibrahim Balarabe Abdullahi, both of the All Progressives Congress (APC), emerged speakers of the Assembly at different sittings.
While Abdullahi, the immediate past Speaker, who sought a third term, was elected during a sitting at the Ministry for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs in Lafia, Ogazi emerged Speaker during a sitting at the Assembly complex.
The emergence of both Abdullahi and Ogazi, aside from factionalising the Assembly, threw up issues regarding the validity of anyone laying claim to the office of the speaker.
BENUE
In 2018, the impeached Speaker, Benue House of Assembly, Terkimbi Ikyange, was suspended by his colleagues for six months for what they called “unparliamentary behaviour”
The legislators took the decision during their sitting at the Old Banquet Hall of Government House, Makurdi.
The legislators could not hold their parliamentary session at the Assembly complex because the police locked the main entrance to the building.
The action compelled some legislators to scale the Assembly high walls to enter the premises only to discover that the chambers were also securely locked.
Following their inability to hold their sitting at the Assembly complex, they relocated to the Government House Banquet Hall to conduct their business.
[DailyTrust]
Amid efforts to sanitise the financial sector, the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN has directed all banks and financial institutions to publicly disclose details of dormant accounts, unclaimed balances, and other financial assets on their official websites.
The apex bank disclosed in a recent circular, titled “Guidelines on Management of Dormant Accounts, Unclaimed Balances, and Other Financial Assets in Banks and Other Financial Institutions in Nigeria.”
According to the circular, banks are expected to publish details of dormant accounts, unclaimed balances, and other financial assets on their websites and at least two in national newspapers.
“In furtherance thereof, and in response to enquiries from stakeholders regarding the possible breach of the Nigeria Data Protection Act, 2023 (NDPA), banks and other financial institutions are required to note the following.
“1. Information to be published on banks’ websites as well as the association’s website (where applicable) shall include the name of the account, the type of account, the name of the bank, and the branch where the account is domiciled ONLY.
“Information to be published annually in at least two national daily newspapers or the premises of state and unit microfinance banks shall also convey the details as listed in (2) above.”
Earlier, DAILY POST reported that CBN announced fresh guidelines on the management of dormant accounts, unclaimed balances, and other financial assets.
This directive follows an earlier order issued by CBN on July 19, 2024, mandating banks and financial institutions to transfer unclaimed balances and dormant account funds to the apex bank’s designated accounts.
[DailyPost]